Three Tips in Design

 In Blog

For the past few months, in addition to working with Beetle Press, I have been working for an Anhueser-Busch distributor out of Kingston, called L. Knife & Son. I landed the job back in March – while I was still in my final semester at Westfield State – and picked it up again after school ended in May.

My grandmother – who has worked the switchboards at L. Knife for the past 25 years – had given my resume to the head of the graphics department, Kevin O’Connor. The rest soon fell into place.

Working in the graphics department – or, as everyone seems to call it, the Sign Shop – has been exciting yet demanding. There is so much more that goes into advertising than just throwing together images and words to create catchy layouts. We do everything from creating templates for cooler stickers to billboards, laying down signs and cutting them out – even installing them for the stores and restaurants that go through the company for alcohol.

Though I’m still learning myself, I thought I’d share with you a few quick designs tips for making a successful advertisement.

Tip 1: Assess your audience.
When creating any layout, you need to consider what you are designing and who you are designing it for. If you are designing a flyer for an event or a banner for a festival, think about who you hope will attend these events, and gear your design toward them. If you’re trying to gather attendees for a lobster fest, use a picture of a giant red lobster to entice seafood lovers. Which brings me to my next tip!

Tip 2: Pictures speak louder than words.
We have all heard the saying that a picture is worth 1,000 words; well, it is. And pictures speak more to audiences, arousing a sense of pathos in viewers. People connect with photos. But don’t just use any Google image you can get your hands on, and never use the clip-art provided by your computer. People relate to real images. If you want to advertise animals up for adoption at your shelter, show pictures of the animals being friendly and playful. However, if you want to ask for donations for animals in need, you want to choose pictures that show their ailments – pictures that speak to the cause. Make people feel.

Tip 3: Less is more.
I learned this in my Grant Writing class in my senior year of college when my professor showed us how to make a slide show the correct way. When you are trying to create a successful advertisement, chances are you have a lot of information that you need to pack into a relatively small space. Try to cut back this information as best you can so that it doesn’t clutter your design and so that it may be absorbed in the easiest way possible. Clutter is an advertiser’s worst enemy. With too much to take in at once, people become overwhelmed and lose interest.

 

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